SI.com has reported an interesting story on the role that Twitter is playing in sport: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/the_bonus/06/05/twitter.sports/index.html
This story clearly answers some of the questions raised by this blog back in May this year: http://dailysportthought.blogspot.com/2009/05/sporting-twitterati.html
Too many issues to discuss, but here are a few: if Twitter truly does allow sports fans to BIRG (bask in reflected glory), then is it just as an effective a tool for them to CORF (cut off from reflected failure)? In which case, can sports stars and teams use Twitter as a barometer of their popularity and of any decisions they have taken? Also, to what extent does Twitter invoke a sense of 'far away, so close' amongst athletes? That is, it enables them to expend very little energy in communicating with fans, simultaneously keeping them very much at arms-length, while also enabling fans to feel valued, wanted and much closer to their heroes? Perhaps Twitter is yet another fad, yet another content-generator in an already crowded information landscape, especially when the micro-blogging service is often being used for marketing purposes? Check out the recent cover story from Time for more information: www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html
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